I have one and love it but haven’t run lots of loads through it. I did find full house 44 mag loads uncomfortable to shoot in it and gave the rest of the ammo to my son for his Redhawk. It makes an awesome 44 special revolver and does well with cast bullet loads as long as I stay away from the barn burner loads.

Seems like a good gun for carry and use with .44 special, but you don't have to worry if you load it a little hot. I always thought the 696 was interesting but I didn't think it would be suitable for hot loads. Well maybe there is a difference in the materials of the 69 vs 696 but apparently there is no problem with the size.

I had a wild idea on time to build "the perfect carry gun" as they say. There was a limited edition 686 available with 5" non-underlug barrel. If you could get one of those barrels, have it rebored to .44 special, and mounted to a 696... But then S&W builds almost that exact thing, just with slightly shorter barrel.

I have a 696 and it seems to me that the biggest improvement of the 69 over the 696 is that the barrel root on the 69 is entirely supported by the frame while that of the 696 is very thin. I use mine with factory Gold Dots or Silvertips and save the 7.5 gr. Unique loads for the various SA .44 Specials. A 69 would be a treat in that regard. Still, I just couldn't gin up enough enthusiasm for the 69 that I would buy it.

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Sincerely,

Hobie